Misadventures in grad school, running, and life

winter

Ironman Raleigh 70.3 training started this week! So did winter! These two things do not go together! So instead of starting training off with a bang, it’s been more of a fizzle. Oh well.

Mondays are off days. So I took full advantage of that and lazed.

Tuesday….I woke up and went down to the trainer to get a 40 min ride in

It was supposed to be in Zone 2 (heart rate) so I kept it pretty slow and did about 9 miles. When I finished, I walked up to take a shower and saw this!

Surprise snow! A quick check of the weather app said that the snow would stop by 9am so I decided to head in to school with stuff packed for an afternoon swim. This was a mistake. The roads were worse than when it iced!

This time, I wasn’t the only crazy grad student who showed up to work, Shake and David did too 🙂

Grad school is waaaay more fun with friends, btw.

Since it didn’t stop snowing…

and the roads were a mess, the afternoon swim was canceled and I went home to spend the rest of the day with Lisa, Steve and Indy.

Wednesday…aka today…is long run day. Luckily the GIANT SNOWSTORM OF RALEIGH isn’t supposed to start until later tonight, so I did 7.5 miles in 1:07 (the schedule said to run for 1:10)

The swim tomorrow will likely be canceled and I plan to spend the day in warm and pleasant ways. We shall see what happens!

It was forcasted to reach above 30 degrees today! So obviously that means all the ice has melted and I can go for a run right?!

Well….ok. First ‘mistake’ was deciding to run while it was still only 25 with a helluva wind chill. Second ‘mistake’…..forgetting that the greenway is super shady and probably won’t thaw for another week or so.

ANYWHO. So I went anyways dammit and it wasn’t as bad as I was expecting! Only fell once! (looks very proud of self)

About 50% of the greenway looked like this

Please note, this is not nice, crunchy, non-slippery snow. This. Is. Ice. While it may look like the optimal choice of path is in the middle where the tire tracks are….DO NOT BE FOOLED, it is way more slick there since the ice has melted and refrozen a couple times.

Also. This is Raleigh, North Carolina we are talking about. To us, cold is 40 degrees and frigid is anything below that. So to run up to Shelley Lake and see it like this…

was a total surprise!! Those are GEESE on the water. THEY ARE WALKING ON THE WATER. THEY ARE JESUS GEESE. ALL HAIL THE JESUS GEESE!!! You should take careful note of the geese’s newfound ability to walk on water. These creatures are pure evil. ANY new skill they acquire is bad news for us mere humans. You have been warned.

Back to the run!

Like I was saying, seeing ice on the ground in Raleigh that has been there since Tuesday is kinda weird. And extremely slippery.

Note the ice.

Note how I feel about the ice.

The greenway was like that (a solid sheet of ice) for the next solid 3/4 miles or so. In fact….take a look at this portion

This is where I fell. The only time I fell. Imagine a cartoon character literally slipping and falling in the most hilarious way and that’s probably what I looked like. This was the most treacherous part of the run. Because this was solid ice. No footprints to break it up. No tire tracks. A solid sheet of continuous ice. Like at an ice rink. Only you don’t have skates. You have running shoes. Without spikes. And you’re trying to run like a penguin only to fall head over heels and almost end up in the frozen lake.

Luckily, my rear was so cold, I didn’t feel it and kept on running 🙂

This was the last, long stretch of evil on the run.

Me finishing said stretch of evil without falling!

The remainder of the run wasn’t bad. All in all, I did 4.3 miles in about 46 min. This includes stopping for pictures and falling and waddling on scary ice. When I wasn’t on ice I had about an 8:00 pace. On the ice…whilst running like a penguin, I slowed to about a 10:30 pace.

While the temps we’re getting in Raleigh may not be considered cold by northern standards, it’s definitely record-breaking cold here! This morning it was 13 when I woke up…..13. And that’s not including the wind chill which lowered it to 3!

Seriously running out of sweaters. -Note to self: Do yo’ laundry-

Cold, snowy weather outside and sick people inside call for one thing…CHILI.

Here’s how I make mine, it’s a little sweet with some nice heat at the end 🙂 Oh, and it only takes one pot. #disheswin

Cold Weather Chili

Ingredients

4 strips bacon – chopped into pieces

1 lb ground beef (we used ground bison for this recipe)

1 bell pepper – diced

1 jalapeno pepper -diced (totally optional, leave the seeds in for extra spice or take them out or don’t use the jalapeno)

1 red onion – diced

15 oz can kidney beans -or whatever bean floats your boat

15 oz diced tomatoes

3 oz tomato paste

3 oz. whiskey or scotch or bourbon – whateva you got

2 big squirts of BBQ sauce

1 tbs chili powder

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp paprika

0.5 tsp cumin

Note: The spice measurements are estimates since I am a horrible food blogger and throw things in as I cook without stopping to measure them

Directions

Heat a med./large heavy bottomed pot until hot. Throw in the bacon pieces and let them cook. It’s gonna seem like a lot of bacon, but there is no such thing as too much bacon.

When the bacon is 80% done to your liking, add in the ground bison/beef/turkey/chicken/whatever and brown the meat so it is fully cooked. – 5 min or so depending on the meat. This is also a great time to add those spices we talked about earlier.

Add in the diced veggies (pepper, jalapeno, and onion) to the pot and let cook for 3 min.

Drain and rinse the kidney beans and throw those in the pot too along with the whole (juice and all) can of diced tomatoes. Stir to combine everything and then add the tomato paste, whisky, and BBQ sauce. I added 2 squirts of Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ sauce cause that’s what we had, but your favorite sauce (as long as it’s not vinegar or mustard based) will taste great!

Mix everything together and don’t burn your tongue on the spoon as you lick it. Cover the pot and turn the heat down to low and go watch Game of Thrones or something so that chili can simmer and those flavors can get to know each other.

Serve with your favorite chili toppings!

Serves: 4-5 hungry adults

I topped mine with sour cream, cheddar cheese, and some green onion. Other popular toppings include everything but the kitchen sink.

I only have a picture of the chili after I smothered it in toppings because yeah. Oops.

Yesterday and today were pretty bah humbug. Our 6 in of snow forecast, which resulted in the university closing (Status 3) at 3pm on Monday, only ended up being 1 in of ice. Solid Ice. Which, had the university at Status 1 for all of today and tomorrow morning.

Status 3 is class cancellation. But Status 1 is the entire university shuts down.

So what did I do?

Like a typical grad student, I took advantage of awesome parking!! Yes. I went to work. Yes I drove on a sheet of ice to get there. Yes it was fine. Yes it was worth it.

The morning was entertaining as Indy, who loves the snow, was trying to figure out how to not fall into the creek as she ran/slid around …

After trying and flailing and failing to get up the driveway (I cheated and went on the grass this morning), Steve and I came in and did what all kiddos do when it get’s wintry out

Hot cocoa is the best!

The rest of the week is filled with questionable weather so we’ll see how school and training play out 🙂